Stoned

A Doctor's Case for Medical Marijuana

"No substance on earth is as hotly debated as marijuana. Opponents claim it's dangerous, addictive, carcinogenic, and a gateway to serious drug abuse. Fans claim it as a wonder drug, treating cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, glaucoma, arthritis, migraines, PTSD, and insomnia. Patients suffering from these conditions need -- and deserve -- hard facts based on medical evidence, not hysteria and superstition. In Stoned, palliative care physician Dr. David Casarett sets out to do anything -- including experimenting on himself -- to find evidence of marijuana's medical potential. He smears mysterious marijuana paste on his legs and samples pot wine. He poses as a patient at a seedy California clinic and takes lessons from an artisanal hash maker. In conversations with researchers, doctors, and patients around the world he learns how marijuana works -- and doesn't -- in the real world"--Page [2] of cover.

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A balanced look at the issue of medical marijuana - its benefits as well as its drawbacks, and how it has genuinely helped many while leading others into a tragic belief of a cure from an incurable disease. It does say that there needs to be reliable drug trials and the proper balance between THC and CBD needs to be found to determine what would be therapeutic. The book also notes how easy it is to get a medical marijuana license in some states, as well as the wild west nature of the business where the drug is now totally legal. The author ultimately comes out in favour of the drug but lets the reader decide for oneself.

Quotes

"The good news is that you can't fatally overdose on marijuana. There don't seem to be any CB1 or CB2 receptors in the brain stem, which controls important functions like breathing. So in theory, even massive amounts of marijuana shouldn't cause a fatal overdose in the same way that too much morphine would, for instance. That makes marijuana safer than other drugs like morphine in an overdose." - Author